U.S. Women’s Rights Pioneers: The Epistemological and Political Asymmetry of Social Movement Framing

Contemporaneous 19th century U.S. social activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth are publicly memorialized as women’s rights pioneers. In my thesis, I situate these historical figures in conversation by qualitatively analyzing three textual documents: (1) “Declaration of Sentiments” (1848) by Elizabeth Cady Stanton; (2) “Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States” (1876) by Susan B. Anthony; and (3) “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851) by Sojourner Truth. My thesis deduces “woman” as a salient, contested, and asymmetrical epistemological and political category, outlining its travels across the three documents. To begin, I pair the existing historiography of 19th century U.S. women’s rights with a theoretical framework encompassing intersectionality, feminist and social epistemology, and social movement framing. I conduct qualitative content analysis and identify key sites of congruence and difference between Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth. My analysis finds that all three figures construct “woman” by developing “rights” frames and diagnoses of aggrievement. I propose that white feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony frame “woman” vertically by deferring to the seeming preeminence of the U.S. nation. In contrast, I propose that Black feminist Sojourner Truth frames “woman” horizontally by synthesizing her feminist consciousness, lived experience of enslavement, and personal religiosity. These findings illustrate how historical trajectories of U.S. women’s rights are contoured by power, race, class, gender, and citizenship status. My thesis makes scholarly contributions by recontextualizing U.S. women’s rights memorialization and interlacing feminist and social epistemology with social movement theory